]]>Since making a name for himself on The Daily Show, Rob Corddry has enjoyed a versatile career as both a character actor and star, culminating with the fourth season of Childrens Hospital, the star-studded, gag-filled series running on [adult swim].

Hardly a conventional leading man, Corddry has managed to insert himself in some of the most recent classic comedies in cameo or supporting roles, thus adding to the mystique and legacy that is…Corddry.

(If you say “Corddry” in that last sentence in a whisper, it’s pretty dramatic.)

Old School

Rob Corddry didn’t really get a chance to make his Old School character, Warren, his own, but that didn’t really make the character any less iconic as a middle-aged dude who seems to be disillusioned with the way his life turned out.

As such, the paunchy and bald Corddry makes for a pretty damn funny fraternity pledge under the least humorous circumstances, so when he’s reduced to dropping bricks tied to his weenus and getting kidnapped, the laughs come in spades.

Arrested Development

As Moses Taylor, Corddry played a right-leaning gun-nut actor that Lindsay Bluth develops a crush on. Moses Taylor, a character who plays a TV character named Frank Wrench. While that name is just a characteristically bizarre and hilarious name that the writers of A.D. created, the name “Moses Taylor” is an amalgam of two Charlton Heston roles. Moses from The Ten Commandments, and Taylor from Planet of the Apes.

Of course, Heston was a real-life conservative actor who actually sat as president of the NRA. Charlton Heston never had to deal with a headline that said “Charlton Heston Hunts People.” That problem was unique to Moses Taylor.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Here, Corddry goes predictably over-the-top, as he does so very well. He plays Ron Fox, a racist agent of the Department of Homeland Security. While going on a tear not only against the titular duo, but most everyone that crosses his path, Corddry plays the part so well that one can comfortably come to the conclusion that he’s totally a racist in real-life.

Community

As funny as he is when he’s playing angry, Corddry is at his finest when he’s playing smug and smarmy, and his role as Alan Connor in Community proved to be the perfect vehicle for such a demeanor. Connor is an old law school buddy of group leader Jeff Wingert, but it turns out this “buddy” is the one who got Wingert disbarred.

Jeff surprisingly doesn’t take too much offense to this revelation, saying that such betrayals are pretty standard in the world of law. Oh, and Alan Connor has a drug addiction, too, which ups the sleaze factor a fair amount.

The Winner

It would normally be remiss to claim that a starring role in a primetime sit-com is “under the radar,” but when the show in question was Fox’s The Winner, I think that characterization works just fine.

The short-lived show watched by few served as a sort of twisted take on The Wonder Years. Rob Corddry played Glen Abbot, a phenomenally successful businessman. Of course, a show about Rob Corddry being really successful doesn’t sound realistic at all, so The Winner consisted of flashbacks to Glen’s 30s when he was still living at home and not all that much of a winner to begin with.

Corddry’s a natural as a hapless lost soul, just sort of limping through life. It’s a shame the show didn’t get picked up, because Corddry proved pretty terrific in the starring role. Oh well. It must be the same reason that Christopher Walken doesn’t star in movies.

W.

To prove that Corddry isn’t all slapstick, absurdist humor, and guys named “Moses,” Corddry has dabbled in drama as well, most notably as White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in the George W. Bush biopic, W. Rob Corddry doesn’t look too much like the flack, but he’s bald, so I guess that’s close enough for Oliver Stone.

Is it possible that he wanted to make the spokesman a little buffoonish in an effort to exercise a slightly lefty slant on the story. Hmmm. That does sound like something Oliver Stone would do.

Dwayne and Travis, 30 Minutes or Less

These two screwups (to put it mildly), played by Danny McBride and a startlingly brilliant Nick Swardson, have what seems like a good plan: Strap a time bomb to a pizza delivery guy and force him to rob a bank and hand the cash over to them. Wait, on second thought, that seems like a terrible idea. Anyway, their basic idiocy and lack of experience in criminal matters doesn’t help things. It takes more than dynamite to achieve one’s humble dream of opening a tanning salon/brothel.

Jasper and Horace, One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Like a lot of dumb criminals, Jasper and Horace aren’t bad dudes, really. But they’re working for one of the most evil villains of all time: Cruella DeVil. They basically follow the Laurel and Hardy template of “tall dumb guy, short, slightly-less dumb guy.” Funny thing: Horace (the short one) often correctly guesses what the Dalmatians are up to, maybe because he shares some kind of animal savant quality with them. Nobody ever listens to Horace though, and thank God for that – unless you’re a Dalmatian fur enthusiast.